


Hindsight

by Bethalani



Category: Zombies Run!
Genre: A little bit of violence? A zombie dies but it isnt too graphic, Female Runner Five, Five and Eugene bond over disability, Five is a stubborn idiot, Five is legally blind, Gen, Maxine is so done, Minor s1 spoilers, Sam is a cinnamon roll
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-29
Updated: 2018-08-10
Packaged: 2019-01-26 05:47:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12550516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bethalani/pseuds/Bethalani
Summary: "In hindsight, perhaps the offer of having someone to run with wasn’t the worst idea. Of course, hindsight is 20/20. Hindsight had a one-up on Runner Five in the vision department. Hindsight was annoying."ORHow Runner Five's refusal to accept the help she's offered comes back to bite her in the arse.





	1. Video Games and Knee Taps

If there was one thing Five had always been, it was stubborn. Even before the apocalypse, asking for help wasn’t something she’d been well versed in. _Why ask for help when everyone else can manage just fine?_ That had been her mentality for a long time, as was still the case at Abel. Five reckoned one of the reasons Mullins sent her to Abel in the first place was because she was good at finding... _alternatives_ to suit her situation. She was crafty – resourceful. Just what Project Greenshoot needed, apparently, not that she’d been told anything about that.

However, regardless of her resourcefulness, the issue still stood. Five was not the ideal runner, and sending her out into the zombie-infested wilderness alone wasn’t the most logical thing, in terms of safety. According to Janine, accommodations would have to be made, and the township’s doctor would be the one to sort them out, in liaison with Runner Seven. Maxine was the one to bring up the topic. She finally approached the idea at the end of Five’s runner training – she was an official Runner now, so it made sense to put provisions in place, before her actual runs for the township began.

“You’re a good runner, Five. You’ve made astounding progress in your training, but I think we both know that your visual impairment... it poses some risks.”

 _Risks_ , she said.

Five simply shrugged and adjusted the strap around her glasses. Well, they were more googles than glasses – thick, purple things with an elastic strap to keep them in place and rubber on the inside to keep them from shattering upon impact. She’d had them for ages – bought them months before the world ripped itself apart. Sports glasses were much more durable than flimsy specs.

“I don’t know why there would be,” Five argued. “The prescription in my glasses is only a little bit off, and it’s not like I’m completely blind. I _can_ see, and Abel needs all the runners it can get– “

“And we’re happy to have you.” Maxine finished her sentence for her. “Of course, we are. But there’s a difference between staying close to Abel and going out into No Man’s Land without the proper provisions. Janine thinks that… maybe you should stick to running with other people for now.”

Five appeared unimpressed. _Janine thinks…_ If Janine’s opinions on the matter were so important, maybe _Janine_ should have told Five herself.

“I get what you’re saying, Doctor Myers. But I’m fine. My pace is good, I know the area, and I’ll always have Sam in my ear when I’m out there.”

“Yes, but– “

“ _Please_ , Doc, I can still do my job. You wouldn’t have trained me to do it, otherwise. Just… tell Janine thanks, but… no.”

The air between them was tense, and Five made a beeline to the dining hall for dinner before anything else could be said, leaving the good doctor in a vague sense of confusion. She couldn’t understand why Five refused to accept the help that was there not only to prosper herself, but also the township.

But Five, herself, knew she could be independent. She _knew_ she could successfully run for the township and do her job.

***

Over the next couple of weeks, Five took a few runs alone, alongside missions with her fellow runners. In between her shifts at Radio Abel, Five was doing well. She mainly ventured into the old high streets and shopping centres of a world that was long-gone. Sam’s voice in her ear, warning her about nearby hordes or navigating her around was more than helpful, of course. It kept her going. His warnings kept her _safe_. There had been no major incidents, no serious injuries – Five was doing her part for Abel.

On one particular run, she even found some protective gear that was still in good nick, and from then on it wasn’t too bizarre to see her heading away from Abel looking as though she was heading into battle or, well... to a roller derby match!

Though, in hindsight, perhaps the offer of having someone to run with wasn’t the worst idea. Of course, hindsight is 20/20. Hindsight had a one-up on Runner Five in the vision department. Hindsight was annoying.

***

You see, it would have been too easy to everything to go tits up on that first solo run – that way, there would have been an excuse for Janine to say “I told you so” and pair Five up with another runner for every single run, indefinitely. It wasn’t even a vital, important mission, either. Nobody was alone for the vital missions, and even during the run to warn Brunswick, last week, she’d ran into Sara and everything had gone according to plan. No, it just _had_ to be a simple supply run, didn’t it?

Everything was going well to begin with – Five had gone down to what had once been Market Street to find some recreational supplies. More specifically, she’d gone to find anything that would be compatible with the X-Box in the rec centre, and with Sam keeping track of her on the cameras, there was no doubt that she’d bring back something cool.

“Is _Lego Batman_ any good?” Five asked, squinting at titles as she grabbed games from the shelves.

Sam’s voice, though crackling through the headset, was unmistakeable.

“ _Anything_ ’s good, Five. Trust me – we’re all sick of playing _FIFA_ – it’s all we’ve had for months! Oh, you’re going to get so much township cred for this! If you could get some controllers, that would be brilliant! We only have the two and… yeah, you know how Runner Three can be when he gets competitive. We could do with a few backups.”

Five couldn’t help but chuckle as she shoved a few controllers into her backpack.

“Hey – at least I’ll actually be able to play something! Never could play _FIFA_ – it all just looks like a big green blob… to me…”

Five trailed off, her hand frozen above the forth controller. There wasn’t… no, there was definitely a noise, wasn’t there? There couldn’t be a zombie in the shop… If there was a zombie in the shop, then Sam would have warned her, right?

“You know, Five, I really don’t know how you manage. I mean, not being able to play _FIFA_! I’m sorry, but that’s just not fai– “

“ _Ssshh_ – I heard something…” Five cut Sam off in an instant. She could hear something, and it wasn’t just static over the headset. Adjusting the strap keeping her glasses in place, Five didn’t even think to zip her bag all the way, for fear that she’d make any more noise. _She knew that sound_.

“Sam?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper. “Please tell me I’m wrong and there _isn’t_ a zombie somewhere in this shop…”

Five remained as still as possible as she heard the _clickity-clack_ of typing over the comms.

Sam groaned, and Five fought every instinct that was just telling her to scream.

“Crap. Yeah, okay. You’ve got one creeping about the stock room. Um… You should be fine, as long as it doesn’t know you’re there. Just get out of there.”

Fuck.

There was only one thing for it. As quickly and as quietly as possible, Five manoeuvred her way around the shelves, clutching her backpack by the shoulder strap. It was fine. She could do this – she could get out without a zombie confrontation. As long as she got out of the shop unnoticed, she would be fine. Sam would direct her back to Abel and she’d be able to get back there in an hour or so. Yeah. It’d be fine.

Or, at least, that _was_ her mentality until she miscalculated the distance between her and a stack of Demons and Darkness figurines and sent them clattering to the floor with a loud _crash_.

 _Fuck_.

There was that noise again. That horrid, lifeless _groan_ that could only be made by a member of the undead.

“I think he heard me…”

She could hear Sam over the comms, telling her to get out of there and to _run_ , but it was too late! No sooner than Five had knocked over the pyramid of figurines, had the zombie burst from the stock room in all its rotting, fleshy glory. It was disgusting, and Five didn’t have time to think before it lunged at her with its teeth bared.

She jerked to the side just in time for the zom – who had once probably worked in the shop, going by its uniform – to swipe at her throat with an almighty growl, sending her diving into the collapsed tower of figurines. The hard plastic of miniature rogues, wizards and monsters dug into Five’s hands as she rapidly scurried away from the zombie. It recovered quickly enough and lunged again, and again Five jumped back. It was the instinctive thing to do – get the hell out of the way of the thing trying to kill you. Between the adrenaline and the fear, Five couldn’t think.

Sam’s voice in her headset was more like a muffled shout, dampened by the adrenaline alerting her only to the fact that there was a _bloody zombie trying to get to her throat_!

“–out! Five, get out of there – _are you listening to me? Run_!”

 _Run_ … _run…_ shit! Sam was right! She couldn’t stay like that forever – the zombie currently trying to tear her throat out would get her in an instant! Sod accuracy – Five jumped back one final time and when the zombie inevitably lunged at her, she shot out a leg and kicked the thing, full force, in the head, sending it reeling backwords, sputtering and as confused as a zombie could be. She felt around for anything – any kind of weapon she could use to finish the thing off, but nothing came within her reach. Nothing except those bloody figurines! All Five could do was throw plastic figurines at the zom to keep it down long enough for her to get to her feet. So that’s what she did.

Once she was up, Five shouldered her backpack and made a run for it before the zombie could orientate itself! But, of course, the figurines were still in the way, so she tripped and fell forwards. Five’s left arm banged against something extremely hard, and she yelled out.

And then there was the _crunch_! The zombie was still and silent.

“Wow! Yeah, that’s… that’s messy. I’m… rather glad we didn’t have shepherd’s pie for lunch because that is disgusting.” Sam’s voice, suddenly clear, resonated throughout Five’s headset.

A cold, wet sensation radiated around her knee, soaking through the straps keeping her right kneepad in place. The only thing Five could think to do was wipe the spatter from her glasses. She dared not look down.

“…Sam?” Oh, Five hoped her mic hadn’t broken in all the commotion…

“Still here. Runner Five, are… are you–?”

“I’m okay!” Five cut him off. “I’m okay, I’m not – I wasn’t bitten. I… I think I killed it.”

“Yeah, you’ve _definitely_ done that. That is a very, _very_ dead zom. In my experience of witnessing zombie murders – and, mind you, Five, I’ve seen a lot of them – a kneepad through the skull tends to do the trick.”

 _A kneepad through the skull tends to do the trick_. Indeed, it did. God, Five really didn’t want to look down. She didn’t _need_ to look down to know that her instinctive knee tap to stop herself from falling on her face had actually gone and caved in a zombie skull.

It was at least two minutes before the shock wore off and Five was able to think of something other than her gunk-covered knee. Unfortunately, the first coherent thought she could form was something along the lines of “ _Holy hell, my arm hurts”,_ but she couldn’t think about that right now. Sam would only freak out, and if there was no bite, there was no need for a freak out. She could hold out until she got back to Abel

With her good arm, Five used a shelving unit to pull herself to her feet. The _squelch_ around her knee as she stood was more than enough to make her feel sick, but as sick as she felt, she couldn't exactly stay there much longer. Amidst the pain in her arm, the scattered figurines and the… well, the zombie gunk, the runner slowly clambered over the mess.

“So much for a simple bloody supply run, eh?” Five chuckled into her headset. She had to laugh! If she didn’t, she’d probably scream, or cry, or... yeah.

Honestly? She couldn’t get out of there fast enough.


	2. Tripping Hazard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Runner Five's return to Abel doesn't quite go as planned. Of course, Janine joining Sam to guide her doesn't exactly help...

The run back to Abel went a lot smoother than expected, to _begin_ with. It was something that, frankly, Five was thankful for. It probably wouldn’t have been the case had Five _not_ stunk of the undead, but needs must.

Sam directed her with ease. She followed his orders with ease. No unexpected hordes. No crazy New Canton runners coming to cause trouble. No rocket launchers shooting down helicopters. Nothing. Some would have said it was a suspiciously smooth run; to those people, Five would have said they didn’t know how to appreciate something good when they had it, because simple runs were hard to come by. Not that she was complaining, of course – it was good to get out from time to time and just get some alone time! Well, as _alone_ as she could be while having Sam (and sometimes Janine or Maxine) in her ear, but alone, nonetheless.

The _good_ in this situation was thus: the only things Five had to think about were Sam in her ears, the gravel beneath her trainers and the lack of zoms on her tail. That, and the dull, throbbing pain pulsating throughout her left forearm. And while Abel’s comms operator didn’t pick up on the latter, things were going well!  Besides, there was no point in telling Sam about the dull pain since it wasn’t messing up her run. It was an inconvenience, sure, but it wasn’t causing trouble. There was no point in raising the alarm to something that was simply an inconvenience. If it wasn’t a bite, or a scratch, Sam and Janine didn’t have to freak out. Oh, yeah – Janine had joined Sam since Five had left the gaming shop; something about “making sure the end of Five’s run wasn’t as big of a cock-up as the rest of it”.

“You’re doing great!” Sam sounded considerably more cheerful than Five felt. “Just half a mile to go until that hot shower–”

“ _After_ the post-run bite checks, of course, Mr Yao.”

“Yeah _all right_! After the post run checks. That goes without saying-“

“ _And_ the incident report.” Janine sounded irritated over the comms, but then again, when wasn’t she? “You and Runner Five both know the protocol – after any unexpected hostile encounter, an incident report needs to be completed-“

“-so that we can avoid the same encounter in the future. I know. _Janine_! Can I get my runner back through the gates before you go on about _incident reports_? Five knows the drill.”

“No, Mr Yao. I don’t think it’s enough for Five to _know the drill_ when you allowed her to be ambushed on a supply run, especially when you _know_ to be more vigilant when you’re guiding a _vulnerable_ –“

“That is _completely_ beside the point! _Nobody_ could have spotted that zom–“

Five just rolled her eyes and tuned out the argument, deciding to focus more on the path that she pretty much knew by now. Every runner knew that last half mile, and every runner that knew what was good for them knew to take it seriously. Just because they were on the home stretch at this point, that didn’t mean that zombies couldn’t come out of nowhere. So, as she tuned out the childish bickering of Sam and Janine, Five focused on her other senses; she focused on the sound of the wind in the trees, the thick, musty timbre of the atmosphere, the taste of this morning’s breakfast still in her mouth, and the–

“Runner Five, watch out for that branch!”

Five didn’t have time to register the sudden halt of bickering or the fact that Sam was actually warning her before her foot catch under something on the ground, sending her tumbling over what appeared to be a branch in the middle of the path. The tumble sent her headset flying. Thank God for the wire connecting the headset to the transmitter – if it weren’t for that wire, her headset may have never been seen again. The pain of landing, full force, on her already dodgy arm didn’t help, though, and while she found the she couldn’t move for a moment due to the shock of the fall, she had no problems voicing her opinion on the matter.

“Who the _hell_ leaves a _branch_ in the middle of the road? For God’s sake! I’m only five minutes away from the bloody township! Jesus!”

Groaning, Five reached for the headset with her good arm. God _dammit_! _Good arm_. She wouldn’t have a good arm and a bad arm if she’d just _listened_ to Sam and got out of that shop in the first place, and– _ow_! Her left arm _really_ hurt, now – more than it had done back in the shop. That had to be a sprain, at _least_. Essentially one-handed, Five pushed herself up and repositioned her headset. What a sight she must have looked on those cameras – almost definitely sprained wrist, zombie gunk on her knee, lopsided headset… Five would have probably said Janine was right about that running partner idea if she weren’t listening. But – of course – they _were_ listening.

“Sam… Janine… I’m… I’m okay… I think it’s just a sprain. I’ll live. Um… I’m on my way.”

Five expected a scolding from Sam for making him worry, or at least a telling off from Janine. But neither came. In fact, nothing was coming through on her headset besides static.

“…Sam? Janine?”

No answer. Shit. It was broken.

Five didn’t wait for the zombies to find her – the noises of the wilderness were enough to have her sprint towards the township. Oh – she fell over a few more times, too – the arm made it kind of tricky to keep a steady form but, really, what did form matter on the last half mile when zombies could pop up at any moment and there was no comms operator to warn her? Five was just lucky that she could keep her supplies on the home stretch.

Bad form or not, she needed to keep going. She needed to get home.

***

The reality of being back at Abel didn’t hit Five right away. It didn’t hit her when she heard the shots of covering fire, or when the gate’s siren sounded. Usually it hit her when Sam welcomed her back over the headset, telling her to come and say “hi” after the bite checks. But that one constant welcome back wasn’t there – not with the broken headset, so the relief didn’t hit her right away.

In fact, it was the exhaustion that hit her first. Less than a minute after the runner had crossed the threshold, out of danger, she dropped like a sack of potatoes, breathing heavily and clutching her bad arm to her chest. Moving wasn’t an option. Moving was… hard, and Five wasn’t capable of anything hard in her state. Hell, not throwing up was enough of a challenge!

So, she stayed put, embracing the feeling of the cold, rough ground against her cheeks. She ignored the yelling and the ceasing of covering fire. The sound of the gates closing. The shouts of “oh my god, is that Runner Five?” and “someone get Doctor Myers”. Five was too tired to listen. Tired, hurt, covered in gunk, and–

“Runner Five?”

The runner ignored that voice, too, until a gentle touch on her shoulder brought her back down to earth. She’d know those soft Irish vowels anywhere, and they belonged to the last person Five would expect to have a gentle touch. Sara Smith crouched down next to the runner, and through the smudged blood spatter still on the lenses of her glasses, Five managed to make eye contact with her.

“Hey there. You’re okay. You made it back to us in one piece.” Sara’s voice was so gentle.

Five didn’t think she’d ever heard Abel’s most feared runner act gentle. All she could do was grimace back at her. _You made it back to us in one piece._ That was debateable.

“That arm of yours doesn’t look too good, Five. Are you sure you weren’t bitten?”

All Five could do was nod her head. Yes. She was sure she wasn’t bitten. What she had done, though, was crushed a zombie skull with her knee. That smell probably wasn’t helping her case. And while it was the pain in her arm that was making it hardest to move, the smell of lukewarm, crusty zombie guts wasn’t making it any easier. Five could feel the lump in her throat growing. She swallowed, and forced herself to speak.

“I… killed a zombie…” Five was surprised at just how wet her voice sounded. “I fell… and it... it...”

The reality of the situation – of the last three hours – caught up with the runner, and as a small group of people arrived including Sam and Maxine, who had arrived sprinting to the fallen runner's side, she broke down, sobs causing her entire body to shake. She was lifted onto a stretcher. Someone patted her on the shoulder – she thought it was Sam.

“You’re home, now. You're back with us.” Sam said.

Runner Five’s words were a mess of sobs, but as Runner 8 watched her friend being carried off to the hospital, four words were just about discernible.

“It was so _gross_!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly? This chapter was hard to write. My plan for this fic was to have it as a single chapter drabble, but it's turning out to be a pretty lengthy multi-chapter one. It'll probably get to about five chapters. 
> 
> But, yeah, Runner Five just didn't want to get back to Abel as I was writing this! It took her a while to play nicely with the narrative. It was fun to write Janine and Sam bickering, though! 
> 
> Next chapter: Various people have some choice words for Five about accepting help when it's offered to her.


	3. Harsh Truths

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A few people have some choice words for Five about accepting help when it's there.

Decontamination was a blur. Five vaguely remembered someone checking her for bites, wincing when someone touched her left forearm, someone else helping her get out of her contaminated running kit. There were questions about the run, most likely for Janine’s blessed incident report, considering a lot of them revolved around her zombie encounter and couldn’t be answered without her once again dissolving into a puddle of tears. She remembered a lot of things about going through decontamination that day, but none of it stuck. None of it was something she’d need to remember in a hurry.

Needless to say, the runner was a mess, but once she’d been through decontamination and changed into fresh clothes from the hospital’s surplus, she appeared to be less of one. She was cleaner, in any case. The only visible issues would take time and medical assistance to heal, and she was in the right place for that.

Maxine’s hands, covered by thin latex gloves, were as gentle as possible as she inspected the damage done to Five’s arm.

“God, what I wouldn’t give for an X-Ray…”

“I… can’t really help you there.” Still teary eyed and shaken, Five tried to smile through the pain. “Only really picked up video games. It… it’s not that bad, is it?”

The look Maxine gave her was enough to make anyone shut up and feel bad. Oo-kay. The prognosis wasn’t good, then.

“Five, you’ve _broken your arm_. This isn’t going to fix itself in a few days. You’re lucky it’s a closed fracture or I could be giving you _surgery_ right now, so _yes_. It’s _that bad_. Now, on the count of three, I’m going reduce the fracture. It’s going to hurt, and I’m sorry, but it’s the best I can do for you right now. Ready?”

Five nodded. She could feel Maxine readying her hands, and she braced herself.

“One!“

If the sound of the bones being manipulated back into place wasn’t bad enough, the strangled _yell_ that came from Runner Five was something else. And while Maxine definitely acknowledged that having her arm reset without painkillers wasn’t a walk in the park, it was better to have it done and to have it done quickly. Sometimes the element of surprise did the trick.

“There you go! All done!”

Hot, salty tears streamed down the runner’s face. She could taste blood.

“FFFF…”

“I know. If you were Runner Three, I’d probably getting some variation of “physician, screw thyself”. You’re okay – trust me, you’re much better off being caught off guard than thinking you’re ready when you’re not.”

She would have preferred Maxine to wait until three, in all honesty, but, in the words of the great Rolling Stones, _you can’t always get what you want_. Maxine left her to relax, and once she had ventured into her office in search of painkillers and a splint, everything caught up with the runner. She slumped back against the cot before the doctor even found Paracetamol.

***

She must have blacked out, because the next thing that Runner Five was aware of was someone speaking to her. Someone with a distinctly non-American, non-feminine voice. Blinking away the grogginess, Five squinted at the person next to her. Sure, she couldn’t make his face out without her glasses (they’d been taken during decontamination), but that bright orange jumper was unmistakeable, even for Sam Yao.

“You look like you’ve seen better days.”

Oh, Sam. Whether he was guiding her through supply runs or just making wisecracks, he just knew how to make light of a bad situation. Five just smiled and looked down at her arm, now splinted and wrapped rightly in a sling. It still _hurt_ , mind you, but at least she wasn’t waving it around all willy nilly.

“You should’ve seen the other guy.” Her voice was croaky.

“Oh, I did.  I was there with you, in spirit. And… through cameras, I guess.”

There was a pregnant pause. Runner and operator shared a look, the former squinting to try and discern just what the latter was thinking. Or maybe she was just trying to convince herself that Sam Yao really was there. Something within her still wasn’t sure. The last time she’d spoken to Sam was on that run, listening to him bicker with Janine about incident reports and protocol – the same happy-go-luck radio operator who was likely to make a grizzly zombie murder sound cool. But now? He looked… concerned. Worried. Guilty. It took Five a minute, but when she worked it out, the reality hit her more than that branch had.

 _Sam blamed himself_.

“S’not your fault.”

She must have caught Sam off guard, because he seemed taken aback by her words.

“What do you mean?”

Five just cleared her throat and, ignoring the radio operator’s protests of “Maxine said not to over-exert yourself” and so on and so forth, pushed herself up. Doing this one hand proved easier said than done, of course, and it took her a solid minute to get herself propped up against the headboard of the hospital cot.

“It’s not your fault, Sam. _I’m_ the one who messed up.”

“But I’m the radio operator – it’s _my_ job to look out for you, and now Janine’s pissed off at both of us.”

Five raised her eyebrows. “When is Janine _not_ pissed off at us?”

She had a point. It was almost as though the head of Abel Township had two moods – pissed off at Sam, or pissed off at Five. “Pissed off at Runner Three” came in at a close third, right next to “pissed off about protocol”.

“Look, Sam… it’s okay. You’re not the one to blame, here. It’s me and my shitty vision, and before you start – no, that doesn’t mean you’ve got to watch my every move when I’m out. It just means that I’ve got more to watch out for, and that’s nobody’s responsibility but my own. Come on, mate, I can still beat you at Endurance Twister – I’m hardly made of glass.”

Five smiled for good measure, and tried to not look like she was in considerable pain. Frankly, she didn’t care about that right now. Sam was worried and feeling guilty, and a sad radio operator is never a good thing. She needed her cheery Sam back. But he wasn’t. No, Sam Yao looked more serious than she had ever seen him. It was unsettling.

“I can’t send you out on your own, Five. Not until I’m happy you can hold your own.”

The runner froze. “If this is something Janine’s said-“

“Janine didn’t have to say anything!” Sam cut her off, his voice dangerously firm. God. Five had never seen him so serious, before. He meant business. “I need you on the team, Five. You’re one of the best runners we have, but if you keep insisting on us not making allowances for you disadvantages, then you’re just going to get yourself killed, and I can’t lose another runner. Not again.”

There were tears in the radio operator’s eyes. That’s what stood out for Runner Five. This meant more to Sam than just scolding a clumsy runner. It was about her safety, about the safety of the township. There were only twenty-five runners in Abel – New Canton had nearly a hundred. Losing runners meant losing lives and Sam did not want to lose another runner.

“When Maxine clears you to train again, you’re going to meet up with Runner Seventeen – Nancy Reid. Runner Seven won’t let her join us unless she teams up with someone, too, because she’s seventeen. So, you’re a perfect fit. You’re both stubborn as mules. Besides, she likes musicals – you should get on.”

He’d said his piece. Given his two cents.

Sam’s ultimatum was very clear – run with a partner or don’t run at all.

***

“So, what are you going to do?”

That was Eugene’s question in the radio shack, a week later. Five had been released from Maxine’s care, by then, and even if she wasn’t running, she still had a job to do. It just so happened that Jack and Eugene wanted to interview her for their Radio Abel slot – a sort of “welcome back to the airwaves” interview before she took up her regular slot again.

“I don’t know.” She really didn’t. “I love running. It makes me feel like I’m doing something useful, y’know? But the powers that be have made it pretty clear that once I’m cleared to train, I’m not leaving the township alone. It’s like they think I’m a liability and I can’t be trusted.”

“Maybe it’s because they _do_ trust you that they want you to be okay,” said Jack. “You told us what Sam said – he can’t send you out on your own because he’s scared of losing another runner.”

“I got ambushed by a zombie – it happens!”

“ _No_ , you tripped over a branch because you couldn’t see where you were going.” Eugene’s Canadian voice of reason interrupted her. “Don’t blame that zombie for you broken arm. If anything, you should blame the zombie for the permanent stains on your kneepads. But you blaming a zombie for your broken arm is like me blaming canned beans for my leg. There’s literally no link.”

“Maybe…” Five still appeared unconvinced, so Eugene took another approach.

Jack was staying out of this conversation, for once. He seemed very interested in order of the playlist playing through his ancient iPod.

“Think of it this way,” Eugene said. “I can’t get around without my crutches. If I didn’t use them, I’d be stuck in here all day and Jack would have to bring my meals to me. _That’s_ being a liability. But I use them, so I can go to the dining hall, go to my check-ups with the doc and do things productively. Think of Runner Seventeen as your crutch. You get to go out, get supplies and feel useful, and so does she. You get supplies, you get that runners’ high that you guys talk about so much, and you come back to Abel without broken bones.”

Honestly? Eugene talked a lot of sense. He talked a hell of a lot of sense. FShe pondered on his words for a few moments.

“Listeners, we’ll be right back,” Jack said, linking up his iPod for the next song. “Thank you to Runner Five for giving us an exclusive interview, and welcome back to Radio Abel. We hope you make your decision soon.”

The opening chords of Radioactive by Imagine Dragons took over the speakers. Five had some thinking to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yikes! This took longer than expected. With university, Christmas and genera life stuff, Hindsight couldn't really take priority. 
> 
> Still, it was weird writing Sam so serious! He's normally so cheery and happy-go-lucky! 
> 
> Next chapter will be a bit lighter, I promise. Five makes a decision, Molly gets a sharpie, and speakers are rigged.


	4. The Cliche of an author's note

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the author steps in for one of those cliche'd "sorry I disappeared" posts.

Hello!

Wow, I... really disappeared there, didn't I?

Well, folks, real life got in the way. And I mean it REALLY got in the way. From my final term at uni to the phenomenon that is dissertation hell, all the way through to seven weeks working at a summer camp in the states! 

I've been busy. I haven't been running. And I haven't been thinking about my abel family.

But fear not - I have plan to rejoin the Abel community! I already have the first part of the next chapter written and finalised. Who knows - you may get a new chapter soon (albeit a possibly shorter one). 

August is for me before the horrors of jobhunting in September. So I'm going to try and make some time to write about my nerd, runner 5.

Bethalani


End file.
